Photos Underwater photography... Ha, saltwater...

Anybody really played about with it? Have been having a blast with my new 1030sw over the past few days.








(yeah, I know, he looks like he has down syndrome)







Comments? Tips/tricks? I'm still kinda new to this.


[EDIT]
Couple more I forgot about.

 

Nice stuff. I would love an encloser for my canon, but that would run several thousand dollars.

Longer shots, underwater, would look more surreal (the effect that I personally like, kinda like your last shot good DOF).

But it looks like these where taken in a tank, or something?

Keep shooting, underwater stuff is fun to look at!

 

I love the 8th picture! Great colours. Underwater photography is great fun but tricky because everything appears about 30% closer than they realler are but the colours you get are nothng like you get on land.

You should try scuba diving and bringing a camera along. Mind you most waterproof compacts don't go more than a few metres (I wrecked mine after going 6m under, oops) which means you will have to go somewhere shallow. Likewise you cannot use the flash because it will bring up dust and debries.

Figure I may end up doing the PADI qualification for underwater photography someday - possibly this summer.

 

Thanks for the positives.

@outlawaol: yeah, love the DOF effect as well, and have been experimenting with it a bit. Not that easy when your subject is consistently moving. By the way, I work at a fish store, so I have limitless time and subjects to shoot.

@MrWillyWonka: a few friends have used this exact model on reef dives and snorkeling. I've only heard of one occasion of one getting a bit of moisture in it (even then, it was only slight, and the camera still worked). Saying that, I'm enjoying the enclosed tank experience, so I think I'll stick with that for a while.


Have a few more from today:

 

The 6th shot in your first post looks like it's some sort of underwater hummingbird!

The underwater aspect means these pictures are from a perspective you don't see very often!

Dan

 

Never looked at that particular shot like that!

Have some more.

 

Are these taken from underwater, or through aquarium glass?

 

All of these shots have been taken with the camera completely submerged in water.

 

#1 and #3 of those you just posted are the best yet. In #1 you've managed a fair composition of the fish with two color contrasting ones adding some life and depth by being out of focus in the background.
In #3 you have color contrast working very nice for you which makes the subject come out.

 

I agree, though I would have to say the one with the snail going along the leaf right near the whip-tail's eye is my favorite so far (#2 of the batch I last posted).

Was going through one of my tanks today, and found out that some of my shrimp have started to breed, and I have about 50 little ones skipping about. So todays batch is shrimp-oriented, enjoy:


This little guy (just peaking out of the rocks) is maybe 1/4" long.


Egg-bearing female, roughly 5/8" long.


Little bit bigger than the guy above, but still only about 3/8" long.


Ram's-horn snails that just sort of appeared in the tank. There were three of them sitting in a row on this rock.


Fire-bellied toad; got a few shots of him, but this is the best of the bunch.

 

Great photos.

 

I've dabbled...











Taken in the Maldives with an Olympus C770UZ in a waterproof housing. Pictures can look a little dark, as I was only using the inbuilt flash with the diffuser in the housing, not an external strobe. Not bad though, for pics at 20+ meters with a cheap point and shoot.

 

Those turtles look awesome!

When I went to French Polynesia for my honeymoon, all I had were disposable film cameras. I'm kicking myself so much for not buying a P&S with an underwater casing to go along with my Canon S3. I tried scanning in the negatives, but the shots were way too blue. Maybe I'll try again, but this time work harder on the color correction

 

Nice photos GOO. Seems weird seeing those fish in the wild though, as all of them (except obviously for the turtle) I've dealt with on a daily basis in tanks. Cool though.

It's a big group today:


Spider gecko


Leopard gecko


Whites tree frog


Bearded dragon


Desert iguana

I know the above were not specifically underwater, but I figure they're nifty anyway.


Fiddler crab


Yet another shrimp










New tank I'm working on

 

I love this one

 

Thankie. Got a few more for you then...
















Butterfly pleco. Will try to get more pictures of him, as it's the first time I've ever really played about with one.

 

One of the biggest things I'm noticing with doing this, would be that while I am taking these photos at work, I will get customers asking the typical questions: "is that camera really waterproof?" "where did you get it?" "how much was it?" ect. But one of the best so far would have to be the people who stand at a distance, turn to their friend, and wonder if their camera can do it, and suggest trying it. The worrying thing is that they almost sound serious.

I'm just waiting anxiously for the day to come when somebody comes in and starts yelling at me for breaking their camera, because they figured that their little point-and-shoot was waterproof as well. As amazing and life-completing that would be, it would unfortunately shred my one last little hope for humanity.

Oh well; we live in hope. Few more for today:


Whip-tail cat.


Farlowella cat.


Another Farlowella cat.


Glass cat.


Shrimp and a snail racing (literally) along a bit of wood. I've got an entire series of pictures of these two going along, almost in tandem, across this log.


Snail.

 

Well, since nobody else is posting in this thread, I will!




There is a shrimp, I assure you.






Ridiculous close up of a shrimp. This guy is just a bit over 5/8".

 

Absolutely gorgeous. I have a few underwater pics myself.

I collect plecos (of a sort, they tend to run me) and some of those, especially that great pic of the rineloricariid, are amazing...